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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Alfa can't win when motor-noters contradict themselves

I don't fully understand why I "love" Alfas, I just do. OK, just some Alfas. Mostly the ones I like or have owned (not always the same thing). I do enjoy the sense of history, the style and the racing cred, and the (sometimes flawed) high-end engineering at mid-range pricing. So I understand where the sort of opinion quoted below is coming from, but really... how can Alfa win at this game? To be charismatic they must make flawed cars, yet to sell cars they have to make better ones. Eh? Or so the motor-noters repeat, ad nauseum. They all seem to say the same thing, as though they can't really think for themselves... hmmm.

The 147 GTA is a case in point. Its gorgeous looks and sonorous V6 engine gloss over a host of inherent flaws. I want one, even though I know I shouldn’t.

It’s a car I thought a lot about on the launch of the Alfa Giulietta a fortnight ago (first drive here). The two cars feel like polar opposites; the new Golf-fighter looks and feels conventional, has a clever and efficient engine, and drives as well as most things in its class. It’s very good. And yet I can't love it. There are no glaring flaws or problems you’d have to learn your way around. You could buy one without false justifications, without the knowledge you were taking leave of your senses or risking a world of expense and despair.

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